Denial of Preliminary Injunction Regarding Florida Campaign Finance Law Reversed

Scott v. Roberts, No. 10-13211, concerned an emergency appeal from the denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction by Richard Scott, a candidate for the Republican Party for Governor of the State of Florida, against the Florida Election Campaign Financing Act.  The court of appeals reversed on the ground that Davis required Florida to justify its excess spending subsidy by reference to an anticorruption interest, but Florida could not satisfy its burden of establishing that its subsidy furthered that interest in the least restrictive manner possible.

As the court wrote:  "In this emergency appeal from the denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction, Richard Scott, who is a candidate for the Republican Party for Governor of the State of Florida, asks that we preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of a provision of the Florida Election Campaign Financing Act that he contends violates his rights, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to spend unlimited sums of his personal funds and private donations to his campaign in furtherance of his candidacy."

Related Resources

• Full Text of Scott v. Roberts, No. 10-13211